GSOC Curriculum—Winter 2010

Teach-In Notes
(A lot of detail is included here in order to give teachers the flexibility to read their audiences
and emphasize the points they think are most relevant. Key points are in bold.)
Intro: We’re here to:
- provide some information on the effects of the budget cuts
- explain how the university is being privatized and what that means
- talk a about how students are working to protect education and how you can help
Section I: How Budget Cuts are Affecting Students Now
- Tuition Increases
o You probably know that the Regents voted to increase your tuition by
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32% on November 19 —this is on top of a 9% increase passed last May.
o Some can afford this. BUT, even if you can afford to pay over $10,000 per
year for school, you should know that you’’ll be getting less for your money.
· More Limited Admissions
o In the 2009-2010 school year, the UC cut admissions by almost 1,500
students.[1] AND the Office of the President is proposing a plan to cut UC
enrollments by 8-10,000 over the next few years.[2]
- Declining Accessibility.
o According to a study released in early January 2010, UC Berkeley ranks
among the lowest in the nation in terms of enrollment rates of
underrepresented minorities.[3]
o Rising Student Debt. Average student loan debt rose nearly 20% in the first
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5 years of the 21 century; for students of color, the increase has been between 80
and 100%.[4]
o The UC is also reserving more spots for out-of-state students who can
afford to pay about $30,000 per year in tuition.
§ Next fall UC Berkeley will increase the percentage of non-
resident freshmen from 14% to as much as 23 % of the incoming class
of 2010-11.[5]
· Declines in Quality
o Increased class sizes mean less individual attention from professors and
TAs.[6]
o Fewer classes are being offered each quarter. This winter UCSC cut course
offerings by 11%, the highest drop of all the UC campuses,[7] making it
increasingly difficult to for students to get the classes they need to graduate on
time.[8]
- Fewer resources for students.
o Departments and programs across campus that emphasize community
and accessibility have seen their budgets slashed.[9] Such as: Community
 Studies department, the Chicano and Latino Resources Center, and The Equal
Opportunity Programs Office, among other programs and resource centers.
o Library hours have been drastically cut by more than 20 hours per
week. (In 2007-08, the library was open 7 days a week, and weekday hours were
8am to midnight. This year, the library is open from 10-10 on weekdays and
closed on Saturdays.)
- Fewer Choices: Many majors are in threat of disappearing. The Humanities
Division is considering major cuts to the language program that would get rid of
Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew and Hindi, as well as replace instructors with decades
of experience teaching language with inexperienced graduate students.
- Faculty Flight: The UC will continue to lose its best faculty as it is unable to offer
competitive salaries or a supportive working environment. Others are laid off.

Section II: Privatization

POINT: The changes we are seeing now are not a temporary reaction to an economic crisis,
but rather the result of decisions made years before the current economic crisis. In 2004,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met with then-UC President Bob Dynes, and his counterpart
at CSU, Charles Reed, and pressured them to sign the 2004 “Higher Education Compact,”” an
agreement to move the UC towards a privatized model.[10]
Privatization involves the transfer of a government service or responsibility to the private
sector. In the case of the UC, this has meant a plant to force private individuals—students and
their parents—to shoulder more of the cost of tuition, and to solicit more corporate sponsorship.
With this compact, 3 key individuals— —without any public debate— —decided to fundamentally
change the model for supporting higher education in California.

Privatization vs. Public Good: Two Perspectives.

The Argument for Privatization:
- Supporters of privatization say that government bureaucracy is inefficient and
expensive, and that privatization is the best way to cut wasteful bureaucracy.
- Second, since individuals with a college degree on average are able to attain
higher incomes than high school graduates, students and their parents should
assume more of that financial burden.

Public Good: The Critique of Privatization

Privatization does not equal Efficiency
- Critics of privatization argue that it is the UC’’s undemocratic structure that
produces inefficiencies because it is unaccountable.
- Though the UC is said to be a public university, the Board of Regents, which
oversees the UC’’s $18 billion-dollar budget, consists of mostly unelected and
unaccountable political appointees and the budgetary process takes place behind
closed doors.[11]
 - Between 1994 and 2009, the ratio of senior management to faculty jumped
from 2/5 to 1/1.[12]
- Even as the UC Regents have increased tuition by a total of 40% over the last three
quarters, they have continued at every meeting to approve millions of dollars in merit
bonuses for top-earning executives.[13]

Public Benefit:
- Critics of privatization argue that higher education benefits the community as a
whole, as University educational attainment is highly correlated with the income of
everyone in a state.
- More educated workers mean faster economic growth and more high-paying,
knowledge-based jobs. Thus, when fewer people have access to higher education, the
whole community suffers.
- They point to California’’s history of affordable higher education and economic
growth:
o In 1960, the Master Plan for Higher Education in California set public
education as a public priority, a central role of the government.
o It promised every California student an affordable (initially free) seat at
an appropriate institution of higher education.[14]
o In the years since then, the UC system has contributed to making
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California the 8 largest economy in the world and the largest in America
- They note that privatization reduces the quality and scope of research.
o Under privatization, research and teaching would be shaped by special
interests looking for a direct return on their investments.
o This would mean devaluation of basic research in favor of applied research,
increasing inequality in resources between different departments,
o This may also mean different tuition cost for different majors and cutting or
closing of departments deemed to not have sufficient “market value,”” such as
ethnic studies, history of consciousness, and even large cuts in departments we
think of as central to the university, such as literature, history, and
languages.

POINT: Even those who do not go to college benefit from having a large college-educated
population, which generates innovation, propels economic growth, and creates jobs.

Section III: What Privatization Means for the Future of the UC

More of the Same: Privatization means a continuation and acceleration of the changes we are
seeing:
- increases in tuition and class sizes, reductions in class offerings and
diversity, declining accessibility, and overall declines in resources for students
the quality of education.
 - As tuitions increase, fewer Californians will be able to afford to attend college,
meaning less opportunity for social mobility and less diversity within the
university and the middle class.

Section IV: Students Taking Action

- Last quarter’s protests got the attention of both the Governor and UC President
Mark Yudof, but they still haven’t gotten the message that the UC’s problems are not just
about money, but also about shifting priorities and lack of transparency and
accountability.
March 4th
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- March 4 is a state-day of action in all sectors of public education: the UCs, the
CSUs, the community colleges, and K-12. It will involve students, workers, and faculty.
- At UCSC, students are planning a campus-wide student strike, with the support
of campus unions, organized graduate students and organized faculty.

Support the Strike

- SIGN THE STRIKE PLEDGE. Students are tabling all over campus.
- SPREAD THE WORD:
o Tell your reps in student government to support the strike!
o Let your professors and TAs know that you will not be in class that day and
ask them not to hold class!
o Ask your professors and TAs to teach this important lesson to their other
classes and sections.
- JOIN the Movement!
o If you are interested in helping organize this important day, please attend
the General Assembly, a large meeting of all student groups organizing to
fight the budget cuts. Location: Kresge Town Hall. Time: 6pm. Dates: 2/10,
2/24

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March 1 March on Sacramento
- After the display of strength of the student movement in November, the UC
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Administration has decided to call for a march on Sacramento on March 1 to ask the
legislature for more money for the UC Administration.
- The UC Student Association has called for a Lobby Conference from Feb. 26 to
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March 1 . Talk to the Student Government to get involved!
[1] “UC Releases Fall 2009 Admissions Data,” http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/20902
[2] “Approval of the 2010-2011 UC Budget,” University of California Office of the President, available at
www.ucop.edu
[3] Nanette Asimov, “UC minority enrollment among lowest in the nation,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 14, 2010,
[4] http://www.gradstudentstoppage.com/a-note-to-students-of-color-completing-the-work-of-prop-209/.
[5] Philip Matier and Andrew Ross, “UC Berkeley to admit more out-of-state students”, SF Chronicle, October
21, 2009
[6] “Approval of the 2010-2011 UC Budget,” University of California Office of the President, available at
www.ucop.edu
[7] http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-classes20-2010jan20,0,4770272.story
[8] Chris Newfield, “UC Budget Questions and Answers,” available at www.teachthebudgetucsc.org
[9] Tamar Lewin, “University of California Makes Cuts After Reduction in State Financing,” NYT, July 10, 2009
[10] This section is based on a lecture by UC Professor Stanton Glantz. A recording of that lecture can be found
at http://www.youtube.com/user/caltvinfo#p/u/48/vgDmft3DtMQ
[11] Thomas Jue and Jerold Theis, “Money isn’t the only problem facing the UC system,” San Jose Mercury
News, Jan. 21, 2001
[12] Ibid
[13] See reports of the Regents’ Committee on Compensation at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents
[14] “A Master Plan for Higher Education in California, 1960-1975,” available at http://www.ucop.edu/acadinit/
mastplan/mp.htm